JAZZ REVIEW : Tito Puente Keeps Anaheim Celebration Going Well Into the New Year

Though it was the day after, it seemed that the year-end celebrations of the night before had never ended. New Year’s Day at the Anaheim Marriott hotel found a quartet of Latin bands, including one led by timbale master Tito Puente, playing to a pair of packed dance floors during a rhythm-rich evening of salsa, mambo and cha-cha sounds.

Credit the insatiable beats for keeping most of the estimated crowd of 2,000 up and moving to the music. Layers of finely hammered percussion inspired dancing that ranged from a simple sway to involved steps executed by couples dressed in grand style. The gown color of choice, after black of course, was holiday red, and the reflected light from sequined dresses at times turned the dance floor into a twinkling, star-filled sky.

Surprisingly, much of the crowd took time off from their dancing during Puente’s set to watch as the ageless percussionist led his ensemble, including an eight-piece brass section, through rhythmic exercises and jazz-inspired improvisational sections.

Puente himself was in fine form, rattling away at his timbales, all the while directing the crowd in vocal phrases or executing his trademark overhead flourishes with a drumstick. When a dead vocal mike had his singer apparently mouthing the words with nothing coming out, he brought the band to a halt and cracked, “It’s Milli Vanilli.”

Puente’s 55-minute set closely followed his recent concert appearances in the Southland. The band opened with the salsa-fired theme “El Rey,” the moniker by which the bandleader has been known since the ‘50s. Puente made it clear from the start that he was there to play, executing snare-like rolls on his timbales, then thickening the mix with cowbell accents and cymbal shimmer.

From there, the ensemble moved into an up-tempo version of his best-known number made popular by Carlos Santana, “Oye Como Va,” the familiar rhythms colored by flute embellishment and deep harmonic backing from the trombones. Puente broke from the song to incite the crowd, in English, with a repeated “Can you feel it?” before striking back into the tune.

He followed with the Grammy-nominated love theme he wrote for the film “The Mambo Kings,” and the romantic ballad drew a host of closely wrapped couples to the dance floor. Then he quickened the pace with a lively cha-cha dedicated to the late concert promoter and cha-cha aficionado Bill Graham.

The band closed with an intense salsa that was filled with kinky dissonance from the keyboard and assertive brass fanfares. The heated call-and-response exchanges between the trumpeters and trombonist Sam Brutis provided the evening’s most inspired moments. With that, Puente suddenly left the stage, which brought a few complaints from the dance floor.

Earlier, the 10-piece Los Castenos Band of Honduras established the sensual mood with a long set of salsa and ballads. Featuring two untiring dancers dressed in creamy white skirts and pullovers gyrating in barely choreographed fashion next to a trio of vocalists, the group presented a strongly sexual, though never vulgar, set that kept the dance floor and beyond crowded with couples.

Up next, singer and conga-player Johnny Ray, backed by a trio of red-jacketed vocalists, extended the mood with passionate vocal exchanges and tightly hewn ensemble play.

Ray’s set was given a rich, harmonic depth through smart orchestration that revolved on deeply voiced trombone flourishes. The strength and punch of Ray’s ensemble was the perfect lead-in for Puente’s short, high-energy set.